tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86466362018-05-28T23:39:40.699-07:00only this, and nothing moreirregular eccentic eclecticisms, direct from my fingersderekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.comBlogger186125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-34611794443066381342018-03-14T09:27:00.002-07:002018-03-14T09:27:11.161-07:00Interesting times for networkingJames Hamilton recently <a href="http://published an article">published an article</a> about the increased pace in investment in networking. This very much aligns with my experience over the last 10 years and why I now work on Virtual Networking. 10 years ago, a data-center host typically had a single 1Gb link to the TOR (Top Of Rack switch/router), and the uplink from the rack was typically heavily oversubscribed, meaning that a rack of 30 hosts would only have 8Gb or 10Gb of uplink to the rest of the network. Now we see 10/25/40Gb uplinks per host and little or no oversubscription to the fabric. We are also seeing a massive upset in the networking industry. The ability of commodity hardware to do what used to require ASICs has lead to an explosion of flexible networking solutions. The utter dependence on Cisco / Juniper / et.al. is waining to be replaced by whiteboxes and moving the smarts to software defined overlays. As datacenter expansion has moved from owned/managed facilities to cloud we are also seeing these cloud vendors are big enough to justify home-grown networking equipment for more and more of their network. At the same time we are seeing the rise of technologies such as <a href="https://p4.org/">P4</a> which enables faster iteration and facilitates the entrance of new hardware vendors. These are fun times to be involved in networking. One of many reasons <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekdb/" target="_blank">I work on Virtual Networking</a> for <a href="https://cloud.oracle.com/cloud-infrastructure">Oracle Cloud infrastructure</a>.derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-10755160458413283782018-01-14T18:09:00.001-08:002018-01-14T18:09:50.162-08:00note to self: Raspbian Setup<h4>This is mostly a note to myself to remind me how to setup a new raspbian image.</h4><p>The initial setup has a number of challenges that this write-up addresses:</p><ol><li>Locale and Keyboard as GB</li><li>Setting up WiFi</li><li>Setting up static IP</li><li>General Reminders</li></ol><h2>Locale and Keyboard</h2><p>Update Locale to en.US UTF-8.</p><pre style="font-family: monospace;">sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales<br />sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration<br />sudo reboot</pre><p>If keyboard is still not working, try manually editing /etc/default/keyboard and updating XKBLAYOUT to "us". <h2>Wifi</h2><p>Add to /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf:</p><pre>network={<br /> ssid="myWifiSsid"<br /> psk="myWifiPassword"<br />}</pre><p>Then restart network:</p><pre>sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart</pre><h2>Other Wifi notes</h2><p>Setting up <a href="https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/networking-lessons/rpi-static-ip-address/">Static IP.</a></p><p>Setting pi as <a href="https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/wireless/access-point.md">Access Point</a></p><h2>General reminders</h2><pre>sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get upgrade</pre>derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-38016955817891909452011-04-04T15:10:00.000-07:002011-04-04T15:13:55.088-07:00RobotsMy significant other works in a bio research lab for the University of Washington. She sometimes uses a machine that she refers to as 'the robot'. I work at Amazon on AWS/S3. The closest thing I get to a robot is our soda dispensing machine. My office/desk needs a robot. hmmmm.....derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-14612374503613437452011-02-27T15:06:00.000-08:002011-02-27T17:02:17.559-08:00Coffee shopsI'll admit that I live in Seattle, a city lucky enough to have weathered the recession better than most. And yet, Seattle is the home of Microsoft. As such, I would expect to see mostly Windows laptops when I wander into coffee shops. Historically, this has been true. There were always a few trendy folk (or well of dorks, such as myself) with some for of Apple laptop, but they were the exception. The tide has been trending toward more and more Apple products though. Today, I was struck as I walked into my neighborhood coffee shop and counted 5 laptops, with not a single Windows machine in the bunch. Soon, there-after one laptop user left and was replaced by the lone Windows laptop in the shop.<br /><br />Has Microsoft mind-share fallen this badly? I know that when I talk with co-workers, many of them have Macs at home (or Linux... I do manage a team of software developers after all). This is despite the fact that many of them are ex-Microsoft employees. Many of us use Windows at the office, but it is telling that given the choice, more and more people choose Mac. I realize that Seattle is its own little microcosm, but I fear that this does not bode well for Microsoft. How long before the average person's only 'computer' is an iPad or Android type device?<br /><br />We are moving to a world where everything is on the web. You don't need a large hard-drive because you can archive everything into the cloud, or maybe store everything on a computer that sits in your closet, or (more likely) next to your TV. Near ubiquitous internet connectivity fundamentally changes the game. Web applications for all your core tasks fundamentally changes the game.<br /><br />Microsoft is just like the other dinosaur industries mentioned in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Business-Essentials/dp/0060521996">Innovator's Dilemma</a>. The pillars upon which their business depends are eroding. I fear that soon they will discover that they will wake up and discover that even their precious enterprise market is no longer safe.<br /><br />Time to start think about selling my remaining MSFT stock.derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-15998751387506863392011-02-13T17:20:00.000-08:002011-02-13T17:35:07.203-08:00Where did he go?I have spent much of the weekend working on some browser-based tools to access S3 and manage content stored there. In talking to a few people about what I was working on, I often described it relative to a typical blog. Eventually that lead me to look at my own blog and realize that it has been over a year since I posted. Ouch.<br /><br />So what have I been doing? Lots! Work (<a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3">Amazon/S3</a>) keeps me very busy. The last year has seen us <a href="http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2011/01/amazon-s3-bigger-and-busier-than-ever.html">continue to grow</a> and launch <a href="http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2010/03/amazon-s3-versioning-now-ready.html">feature</a> after <a href="http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2010/07/amazon-s3-bucket-policies-another-way-to-protect-your-content.html">feature</a> after <a href="http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2010/11/amazon-s3-multipart-upload.html">feature</a>. My team is hiring like crazy as well. This summer I spent 2 weeks in Maine with my family, trying to keep my nephew from riding off the roads into the bushes. I spent the spring climbing mountains taking the <a href="http://www.wacweb.org/">WAC</a>'s <a href="http://www.wacweb.org/classes/climbingclass/default.view">Basic Climbing Class</a>. (Highly recommended by the way.) When not out hiking/climbing, my weekends are often occupied with walking/jogging the dog and generally enjoying Seattle.<br /><br />I spent New Year's down in the SF Bay area visiting a friend, and talking to people down there made me realize how much I really love living in Seattle. It helps that so many of the tech people I talked to down there also use AWS. It is hard to imagine a better place to be.derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-2668935022884139872010-01-24T16:19:00.000-08:002010-01-24T17:15:14.905-08:00Books, Audio-Books, Bray, Stross, and some new decade thoughts<a href="http://www.tbray.org/">Tim Bray</a> just wrote two entries that reference <a href="http://www.antipope.org/charlie/">Charles Stross</a>, far and away my favorite recent sci-fi author. He started with a reasonable review of "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0441015948/charlieswebsi-20">Saturn's Children</a>", which is have slowly been working though as an audio-book. I've read a number of Stross's books in paperback, and happily introduced others to my addiction. Not since picking up <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Snow-Crash-Bantam-Spectra-Book/dp/0553380958/">Snow Crash</a>, have I had such an experience with a new author. His stories are denser with contemplative ideas than many books on the non-fiction shelves. Saturn's children, to my mind, isn't his best, but that is heavily influenced by the fact that I am listening to it as an audio-book. <br /><br />As audio-books go, the reading is incredibly good. I've listened to audio-books on long road-trips for years. Ever since since Nat and I read 'The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe' series to each other going to/from Burning Man, I've been an audio-book convert. The nature of the medium means that it is slower than reading. I don't have many moments that are opportune for an audio-book. I listen to pod-casts when walking the dog. Maybe if I had an iPod doc in the kitchen I'd listen more, but I usually have NPR on. I just haven't found a good habit/rhythm for audio-books.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2010/01/21/On-Books">Bray also discusses</a> a <a href="http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/01/the-monetization-paradox-or-wh.html">recent essay from Mr Stross</a> about the Google Books settlement. I haven't been following the Google Books settlement too carefully, assuming that old-media was just trying to hang on to their aging business model. Stross does a good job arguing why aspects of that business model are appropriate. He isn't arguing that things shouldn't change. He is asking how can we preserve some of the benefits of the old model. If information is free, then author's like Stross will have a damn hard time making enough money writing books to pay the bills.<br /><br />I'm curious to see how this all transpires. I expect that how 'information' is priced and purchased, will continue to change dramatically. Very few things of real value are truly free. In the beginning, there were pay-walls. Then you have ads. Now they are collecting monetizable data on our behaviors. The latest evolution comes from services that make it cheap and valuable for individuals to generate content (ne twitter/gmail/search) while at the same time they are generating value by monitoring the content in aggregate. It is easy to see how smaller content (IM/email/blog-post) works in this formula. Large content, such as a short-story, or even a full-length book are more challenging. Giving it out for free doesn't compensate the author comparative to their effort. This seems similar to some of the arguemts I've been hearing about why Hulu will start charging for some shows. It is a simple value/reward problem. Do you value the content enough to justify spending your hard won cash for access? I know that I choose to buy content on regular basis, be it book, movie, or music.<br /><br />The last 10 years has seen the rise of the iPod and iTunes along with their switch to DRM-free formats. It has seen the digital camera all but replace film for all but the most serious photography work, resulting in a proliferation of free content hosted online, dramatically changing the business models for stock photography. It has seen the rise of online access to video content, initially as a pay-to-download model, now in a mix of ad supported streaming and pay-per-view streaming. In 2000 everyone could self publish online, but few did. With the rise of blogging, then the social web, anyone with some internet access can claim their corner of the web, choosing to enlighten us all with their thoughts, artistry, or just entertain themselves and their friends.<br /><br />What will the next 10 years bringderekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-36025611051440793392009-11-21T23:31:00.000-08:002009-11-21T23:40:31.679-08:00Lady GaGa vs Depeche ModeMy pop fascination with Lady Gaga has now been justified by <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVh9yhDN4jM">a remix of Lady Gaga's Paparazzi with Depeche Mode's Just Can't Get Enough</a>. DJs From Mars, I thank you.<br /><br />p.s. DJs From Mars <a href="http://www.myspace.com/djsfrommars">MySpace page</a> has links to more videos for similar remixes.derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-19497487941122364042009-10-07T20:41:00.000-07:002009-10-07T20:54:42.925-07:00New Toy = NetBook EeePc 1005HAJust got a new toy for our upcoming travels. I wanted something small to dump pictures onto, so I can label them while I still remember the details. I used to have a Fujitsu P2000 series that I used for this, but that poor Transmeta chip wasn't really holding up very well. So I bought a Asus EeePC 1005HA. The first one arrived with a busted wireless. Sent that back and am writing this post on its replacement.<br /><br />Aside from spending all last night installing all the necessary updates (See <a href="http://nothing-more.blogspot.com/2009/10/if-microsoft-cared-about-customer.html">previous post</a>) I am rather liking the little blue beast. The keyboard is small, but usable. The screen is also small but usable. Google's Chrome browser appears to be a particularly good fit, at least with just a few tabs open.<br /><br />I'm curious to try it out more. I've got a 2GB DIMM to install, which should help things. I've also tried <a href="http://moblin.org/">Moblin</a> a tiny bit. I'll report back more when I've had more time to play with the machine. I'm really rather excited about a machine that has enough batter for me to play around most of the evening without running out of juice. I just wish someone shipped a 10" screen with more pixels. 600 pixels tall is pretty damn small, especially if you are used to a laptop 900 pixels tall. Everything appears freakishly big on the netbook at first.<br /><br />If only it supported the two-finger up/down scroll like my MacBook... I miss that every time I use a Windows laptop....derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-704141945614102172009-10-07T20:15:00.000-07:002009-10-07T20:41:36.393-07:00Dangerous Data StructuresWe have been working on a particular component at work recently. The origins of this code go back to some of the very origins of the product. The code was written assuming a set of facts that no longer really holds true. My team has been patching it, trying to make it work with our new realities. We have come up with some pretty impressive hacks, but each fix has exposed new limitations of the code which we then need to try and patch.<br /><br />What went wrong? Why was it so hard to fix the old code?<br /><br />The problem was that the original code was using data-structures that didn't align with the new goals for the code. The core data-structure was of a rather neat design, but was also rather complicated. Both aspects deterred people from replacing it with something different. If the existing code was so complicated, the replacement (which must support more scenarios) must be more complicated, right? <br /><br />I've seen this happen many times. Someone writes a neat bit of code, and later developers are nervous to replace it. Even though trying to retrofit new ideas on the old code is obviously painful, they would rather layer hack upon hack than rethink the original. This may not actually be true.<br /><br />The worst cruft I have seen accumulate in 'legacy' code, happens when the original implementation used an inappropriate data-structure. Layer after layer of hack tries to pretend that the data is structured differently than it really is. This is one of those things that I think of when people talk about 'code smells'. This is one of the few times that a (partial) rewrite is in order.<br /><br />It is critical that the data structures used are appropriate for the task at hand. Pick the wrong representation and now your code has to jump through hoops to do simple tasks. Pick the right data-structures and the code is clearer, and thus less buggy. With the right data-structure choice it is also easier to evolve the code, to add new features.<br /><br />Just watch out for the day when those new features indicate that maybe you need to rethink your data-structures.derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-69973137469498153852009-10-06T20:15:00.000-07:002009-10-06T20:36:00.706-07:00If Microsoft cared about Customer ExperienceI'm planning some upcoming travel, so I thought I'd try out a netbook. The first think I do on a new computer is download the latest patches. There is something seriously wrong with the fact that it is taking ~1hr to download and update a brand new computer. I realize that means my experience is about a fresh XP install, but since netbooks account for a significant percentage of laptops purchased today, I think my argument still holds. If so many people are buying these machines, doesn't Microsoft want a good customer experience? Instead, I get an insane list of updates. Why can't they ship a version of the OS that includes all these updates? That I need to waste hours updating, just so that I don't get a virus the first time I navigate to a random site with unscrupulous advertisers, is crazy. It just makes me want to try Linux. Have you seen the latest Moblin release? Apple understands this. When I bought a new MacBook latop last fall, I was up and running with the latest updates in minutes. The few updates I had to install were fast to download and quick to install.<br /><br />Microsoft really doesn't seem to act like a company that cares about the customer experience. They care about the corporate experience... maybe. Amazon only just started delivering new laptops with Vista <i>this summer</i>! They are not the only company that kept away from Vista until they had no choice.<br /><br />Microsoft is seriously at risk of loosing market share if they don't give customers a reason to <i>want</i> their products. I don't want Windows; I use it because it is the only OS with the apps I need. Meaning, Windows is the only platform with a good Exchange client, aka Outlook... If OSX really does get a good port of Outlook, I'd prefer that in a heart-beat. For home computing I use a Mac. I bought my parents a Mac. I think Microsoft is a lot closer to loosing a chunk of consumer market than they realize. I think Windows 7 is the last gasp before the consumer marked becomes fully commodetized. Soon after that the OS will stop really mattering.<br /><br />Microsoft is dangerously like the steel-mills and mini-computer manufacturers profiled in Innovator's Dilemma, yet Balmer pretends that it is 1999. Sigh.derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-63616565988398816822009-07-20T10:35:00.000-07:002009-07-20T10:42:26.092-07:00Wind SurfingFor many years I've been interested in learning to Wind Surf, but never had anyone to go with me. The topic came up recently and Natascha showed some interest, so last weekend we took a Saturday afternoon <a href="http://www.greenlakeboatrentals.net/greenlake-windsurfing-lessons-seattle.html">class</a> up at Green Lake. They have decent gear including some comfortably small sails, which make it much easier to start into the sport. Natascha and I both had a ton of fun. The weather around here has been perfect for learning; warm, sunny, with a light breeze. Yesterday we went back up and rented 2 boards for a few more hours of practice. I still spend more time in the water than I'd like, but am definitely getting better. Natascha picked a large sail than last week and got a serious work-out, but we both finished feeling like we are starting to get the hang of it. Now we just need to find some used gear so we can head out whenever we want!derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-76228567539358215632008-12-18T10:16:00.000-08:002008-12-18T10:19:07.815-08:00Duckfeet in the snowI wish I had thought to bring a camera on my morning walk with the pup. Walking through Gasworks Park I noticed some odd prints in the snow. It took me a bit to realize I was looking at duck footprints.derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-30219837681360063312008-11-30T20:29:00.000-08:002008-11-30T20:36:06.870-08:00Seattle Half-Marathon 2008Seeing <a href="http://douglaspurdy.com/2008/12/01/seattle-half-marathon/">Doug's post about running the Seattle half-marathon</a> reminded me that I should mention that I also ran the half-marathon this year. Not nearly as good a time as my Vancouver half-marathon. I didn't train as hard, got sick 2 weeks before the race, and don't think I ate enough the day before. I managed ~1:50, despite having to walk a bit, for fear of passing out. Next year, I'll train for those damn hills better, and try and find a better pace person... Running the first 1/2 of the race at a 7:30 pace was not a good idea. Felt great at the time, but not sustainable.<br /><br />Running 13 miles is an excellent excuse for some pints of Porter and a proper hamburger, and thus so did I indulge myself.derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-16922903280307794082008-11-30T20:07:00.000-08:002008-11-30T20:28:53.346-08:00New toy<p>Friday I picked up a <a href="http://www.apple.com/macbook/">new MacBook</a>. (I almost bought a Samsung NC10 instead, but wanted a machine powerful enough to run Eclipse/etc.)<br /><img src="http://images.apple.com/macbook/images/overview-hero20081014.jpg"><br /><br /><p>So far I have mostly been installing all my favorite Mac apps (<a href="http://www.blacktree.com/">Quicksilver</a>, <a href="http://aquamacs.org/">AquaEmacs</a>, <a href="http://fluidapp.com/">Fluid</a>) plus a few developer tools (NetBeans, Eclipse, XCode) plus the usual (<a href="http://www.openoffice.org/">OpenOffice</a>, <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/">Firefox</a>). Given that my last Mac is an old PPC 12" MacBook Pro, this is a significant step forward. Everything is so snappy, and the bigger screen is a great. I've also moved over from my old <a href="http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/">Password Safe</a> password archive to <a href="http://www.keepassx.org/">KeePassX</a> and a <a href="http://www.getdropbox.com">DropBox</a> account to share the password amongst my machines.<br /><br />I've adjusted to the new trackpad surprisingly quickly. I love the new multi-finger scroll. One of the main uses of this machine will be browsing the web, and one of my biggest complaints about using my girlfriend's MacBook, is the lack of page-down key. The two-finger scroll is a great compromise. <br /><br />I'm looking forward to getting some time to play with XCode an Objective-C. I started toying around with that on my old machine, but got distracted. Now that my household is mostly Mac (2 MacBooks + 1 Mini + 1 Work PC Laptop + 1 PC Desktop I never use), Mac tools are much more useful.derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-71012012623451083872008-11-30T20:01:00.000-08:002008-11-30T20:07:16.715-08:00Been a long timeI've been quite busy with work but unfortunately, the nature of what I do means that I can't really blog about it. Or at least, I have yet to figure out how to appropriately blog about it.<div><br /></div><div>That said... it is the most interesting job I have had since when we were first working on XML support in Internet Explorer 5. (Back then I was helping define the XML DOM, XPath, and tons of other amazing things that people take for granted now.) Working on S3 has taught me more about the reality of building and running distributed systems, than I can even imagine fitting in one book. Working on hard problems with a great team, makes this one of my favorite jobs of all time. (p.s. we are hiring...)</div>derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-8906853382872743572008-05-04T21:42:00.001-07:002008-05-04T21:49:58.496-07:00Vancouver Half-MarathonNatascha and I spent the morning running around Vancouver, BC. 13 Miles of scenic vistas. Lovely day for a run. I'd forgotten how much I like Vancouver. The city is beautiful, and manages to have a bit more international feel than Seattle. The Half-Marathon was a very pleasant tour through a few parts of the city center. I'm not entirely sure what my time was, because we started late, but we think I managed just over an 8 minute mile. Better than I expected.derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-19262394686726815272008-04-22T21:53:00.000-07:002008-04-22T22:32:04.707-07:00And I'm supposed to buy their content in the future?Yet again, <a href="http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080422-drm-sucks-redux-microsoft-to-nuke-msn-music-drm-keys.html">Microsoft drops it's DRM on the floor</a>. I avoid DRM whenever possible, but have used iTunes a few times for books on tape, and my significant other uses it occasionally for music and TV shows. One of the reasons iTunes is so popular is that it is as close to a constant in the industry as any other. Meanwhile Microsoft can't seem to figure out what it's story should be. This is why Microsoft needs Yahoo. Microsoft has no idea how to build a content business.derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-81452536420212227192008-02-11T16:53:00.000-08:002008-02-11T17:52:54.932-08:00XML = 10 years?<p class="MsoNormal">I saw the flurry of posts this weekend about how it has been 10 years since the initial XML recommendation was published.<span style=""> </span>I particularly liked Tim’s <a href="http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2008/02/10/XML-People">XML People</a>. It is amazing for me to imagine that it really has been 10 years. I still remember sitting in my office at TechnoTeacher (long gone) seeing the announcement about the formation of a W3C group to standardize on a subset of SGML fo the web. Way back when Usenet was still useful and I was a SGML newbie reading comp.text.sgml to try and understand some of the crazy stuff I was working on. There is no way anyone in that era could have imagined how XML would evolve and emerge as the ever-present beast that we all know and love. or love to hate. <br /></p>XML arrived at an interesting time. The 'Internet' was exploding. Networked computers went from an office/academic luxury to an automatic assumption. What that meant was that many people needed to extend existing, incompatible systems to share data. XML appeared at a time when a flexible, international foundation for data exchange format was desperately needed. XML was not designed for this; it was designed for text markup! For all its flaws, XML came closer than anything else that existed. Big business jumped on XML like it was the philosopher's stone.<br /><br />XML has been credited and blamed for many things. It has been used an abused. When the customer need appears and drives things that fast, it means many technologies/methodologies/etc get carried along for the ride. I'm not saying XML was not worthy, only that XML got dragged farther than many would have liked, and was stretched sometimes past what most deemed appropriate. XML was also one of the tools that enabled the explosion of commerce on the internet. XML changed the game. Before XML, people defined rigid schemas and binary encoded their data. Versioning was very painful. Writing parsers for data formats was infamously problematic and error-prone. XML arrived as processing speeds became fast enough to support text formats where binary formats used to be the rule. XML also solved a number of internationalization issues, by mandating Unicode and defining standard rules for determining which encoding was used. XML introduced the world to the concept of a 'self-describing' format. People who complain about XML today often fail to realize how much that they take for granted did not exist back then. No solution is perfect. <br /><br />If XML really is as horrid as people say, then why didn't another format replace it? Because there was no other format that solved as many problems. It doesn't hurt to have some heavy hitters in your dugout, too. XML didn't become so omnipresent because of politics. It is here because it was a better 'good enough' than anything else out there. 10 years later and we are only just starting to see other formats, such as JSON, usurp the role, and only in cases where XML was not necessary a good fit to begin with. That is a spectacular success in my book.<br /><br />A number of people have taking the 10 year anniversary to ponder 'what next?' To me it is obvious. XML is part of the plumbing of the modern web. It is not perfect. XML vs JSON debates amuse me. Each has its own place, and there are large areas where either works. XML should not be a religion. XML is a tool. I don't hit a nail using a drill, nor do I carve holes in wood using my hammer. We live in the world technology plenty. Just as a journeyman carpenter learns about his tools, developers should learn and understand the strengths and weaknesses of the tools at their disposal.<br /><br />XML is here to stay. Use it wisely and prosper.derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-25388889190819023092007-12-31T08:44:00.000-08:002007-12-31T09:15:10.149-08:00Remote Desktop for Apple MacsLast Christmas, I got my parents an iMac to replace their aged and infested PC. So far, this has worked quite well, but I keep running into the same problem: I need to walk them through some task, and doing it over the phone does not seem to work.<br /><br />So what I'm looking for is remote control software that would let me see (and interact) with my parents machine over the internet. Ideally, I should be able to run the client from either a PC or Mac, so that I can walk them through something from home or at work. It looks like I have 3 choices:<br /><ol><li><a href="http://www.netopia.com/software/products/tb2/mac/index.html">Timbuktu </a>- Expensive. It looks like you need a full license, just to run the client, which means I need 2 or 3 licenses, at ~$99 a pop.</li><li>Fog Creek's <a href="https://www.copilot.com/">CoPilot </a>- pay per use (5$), and I can't easily use it to log in and requires that my parents initiate.</li><li>Home-grown VNC solution - requires setting up a VNC server exposed though a ssh tunnel, as well as some sort of dynamic-dns so that I can find the machine.</li></ol>Right now I thinking to use CoPilot to address the current problem, since that is cheap and easy. I've never used it though. Any caveats I should know about? Any alternate suggestions my Googling missed?derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-85733812776687074352007-12-23T20:45:00.000-08:002007-12-23T21:01:53.427-08:00Back from AfricaJust returned from 3 weeks in Kenya and Tanzania. Did you know that Tanzania is more properly pronounced something like tan-tay-nia? We spent some awesome time in a bungalow on the beach my Mombasa. We went to an amazing wedding in Nairobi (a friend of a friend was the groom). We spent 3 days on Safari in Maasai Mara. I'll upload pictures soon. Then we were off to Kilimanjaro. 6 days of sweating and I made it to the top! After that we were all exhausted and slummed it around the hotel mostly.<br /><br />Overall it was an amazing trip. It was full of adventure and the unexpected. Hiking up Kili was the most demanding task I've ever attempted. I'm still amazed I made it to the top. The Safari was amazing. I loved seeing the animals, but it felt really odd driving a car around and chasing after these poor animals. Better than a zoo though.<br /><br />And now after almost 24 hours of travel, we are home. My cat is curled up at my feet. And I have to work tomorrow with 11 hours of jet lag.derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-7074118855019071892007-08-02T10:27:00.001-07:002007-08-02T10:27:53.641-07:00The many faces of a Cloud OS<p><a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/2007/08/02/WhatIsACloudOS.aspx">Dare posted an interesting rumination</a> about the term "Cloud OS".&nbsp; This has also been on my mind recently, although my approach has been different.&nbsp; I am an engineer at heart, and have been wondering what it takes to build these things.&nbsp; I've been pondering Google world dominance, while I read up on building fancy Web 2.0 applications, possibly with something like Amazon's EC2/S3 services.&nbsp; Dare's post crystallized&nbsp;an idea that was floating, untethered, through my pondering.</p> <p>This mythical&nbsp;Cloud OS, as with many myths, is multifaceted.&nbsp; The key facets that people are self-organizing around at the client platform and the server platform.&nbsp; This is really just an evolution of the traditional 2 tier enterprise architecture.</p> <p>When talking about a user-facing Cloud OS, such as Jason Kottke's "<a href="http://www.kottke.org/04/04/google-operating-system">GooOS, the Google Operating System</a>", we are talking about a platform of Javascript and web-services.&nbsp; This is really just an evolution of the desktop app that talks to network file stores, and remote databases.&nbsp; Microsoft Windows has been replaced by a Browser, and the back-end services are much richer, but the abstract model is the same.&nbsp; This is what terrified Microsoft back in the erra of the original Browser Wars, and why they fought so hard to 'win' and then abandoned Internet Explorer development.</p> <p>The flip side, the back-end platform that is needed to support this new client platform, is also sometimes referred to Cloud OS.&nbsp; From the client's perspective, this is actually the Cloud Database.&nbsp; This Cloud Database is not like any traditional database though, and itself requires a new underlying platform.&nbsp; Cloud Database has to scale in ways that traditional database systems can not.&nbsp; It needs to be built on scalable clusters of machines.&nbsp; It needs to be flexible and extensible.&nbsp; As mentioned in the interview with Paul Buchheit in <a href="http://www.foundersatwork.com/">Founders at Work</a>, GMail has very different requirements from Google Search.&nbsp; This scalable platform of meta-services is also called Cloud OS.</p> <p>Amazon's AWS services are a baby-step toward a platform for building the Cloud DB.&nbsp; Google's <a href="http://labs.google.com/papers/bigtable.html">BigTable</a>/<a href="http://labs.google.com/papers/gfs.html">GFS</a>/<a href="http://labs.google.com/papers/mapreduce.html">MapReduce</a>, as well as <a href="http://lucene.apache.org/hadoop/">Hadoop</a>/FaceBook (and others I'm unaware of), are the pre Cloud-DB.&nbsp; The single-machine OS has become a commodity.&nbsp; The evolution is now about this new server platform.</p> <p>The client side is even more fragmented.&nbsp; There are new Ajax-y Javascript toolkits announced almost daily.&nbsp; There is no consistency between Google/Yahoo/Amazon/Microsoft/FaceBook client api/platfroms.&nbsp; The core data-models for such concepts are your contacts/friends list, email, spreadsheets, etc are different for every storage platform.&nbsp; This is data lock-in like we haven't had since the 80s.&nbsp; This side of Cloud OS is even less clearly understood than the Could DB.</p> <p>We are in for some fun times folks.</p>derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-2642007180834048932007-07-18T12:54:00.001-07:002007-07-18T12:54:43.220-07:00W3C EXI Format Working Draft Published!<p>The <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-exi-20070716/">W3C just published the first working draft for the EXI Format</a>.&nbsp; There is a lot still for them to do, but this is an amazing start.</p>derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-38787694708752517192007-07-18T09:48:00.001-07:002007-07-18T09:48:58.149-07:00Tales in (Good) Customer Service<p>I recently had a friend tell me about the wonderful customer service he had received from <a href="http://www.qwest.com/">Qwest</a> after moving.&nbsp; This came as a surprise to him, as he was not expecting anything other than outsourced incomprehensible delay tactics.&nbsp; In his case, he got better support from Qwest than from <a href="http://speakeasy.net/">Speakeasy</a>.&nbsp; Just a few years back this would have been unthinkable.</p> <p>I recently decided to upgrade my home DSL connection.&nbsp; I called and scheduled the upgrade yesterday afternoon.&nbsp; Everyone I talked with was pleasant and helpful.&nbsp; I did not feel rushed.&nbsp; They were good at explaining my options.&nbsp; When talking about TV package deals and my lack of TV usage, the rep on the phone related a personal story that was quite cute.&nbsp; </p> <p>I finished the call with a plan for faster DSL service at a lower monthly cost.&nbsp; What do I remember?&nbsp; The personal story from the rep.&nbsp; I remember that he made the call friendly, unrushed, and inclusive.&nbsp; This is what customer service should be about.&nbsp; This is as close to old-fashioned small-town customer service as you can get.</p> <p>Putting a pleasant approachable face on a company makes a significant difference.&nbsp; Qwest used to have a monopoly on phone service.&nbsp; Now with VOIP, I have many choices.&nbsp; If you have bad customer service, you are suggesting to your customers that they should look elsewhere.&nbsp; Customer Service is about keeping the customers that you have.</p>derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-60415065794533232742007-07-03T10:05:00.000-07:002007-07-03T10:22:55.417-07:003 day, 1500 miles, the garden of edenMany many thanks to Ezra and Red Velvet for inviting me down. It was a long weekend, ~750 miles each way, but early summer in the NW US can be quite beautiful. Listened to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393324826">"Stiff<span class="sans">: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers</span>"</a> on the way down, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Life-Pi-Yann-Martel/dp/0156027321/">"Life of PI"</a> on the way back. Audiobooks are a divine gift for such a long drive.<br /><br />The purpose of the trip was 2 days of camping out in a veritable garden of eden, with some amazing people and fantastic music... heaven on earth is dancing till your legs hurt, then hopping in the hot-tub, to mellow to the next DJ's grooves.<br /><br />and I learned to almost hoola-hoop...<br /><br />I needed a weekend without internet, iPhone, President Bush, traffic, and all the rest of the chaos. My world is now a better place.derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646636.post-29282348094511530662007-06-13T11:33:00.000-07:002007-06-13T11:42:06.842-07:00Safari for Windows.. why?A lot of people seem to be pondering why Apple would port Safari to Windows. Safari is a minor player, so why bother? I can think of only one answer: iPhone and offline browser-apps<br /><br />The iPhone has a Safari derived browser build it. Apple didn't talk about it, but if the browser is the development platform, then there must be something like Google Gears coming. If they want to get a large number of people building apps for the iPhone, they need to support development on Windows. The first step for that is Safari on Windows.<br /><br />just my guess...derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03466621207070675071noreply@blogger.com2